In a former post I wrote about how I usually read books. Generally, I don’t linearly read a book from front to back. However, if a book is particularly interesting I read it through in the traditional way. This past weekend, I did that with Stefan Swanepoel’s, Surviving Your Serengeti.
This “fable of self-discovery” takes the reader on a journey to Africa and introduces us to seven animals in the Serengeti. Each of the animals has a particular strength that enables it to thrive in its often harsh environment. These seven strengths are transferable to business and life in general. I found the book to be entertaining and enlightening.
The seven animals and their corresponding strengths are:
- enduring wildebeest
- strategic lion
- enterprising crocodile
- efficient cheetah
- graceful giraffe
- risk-taking mongoose
- communicating elephant
The book encourages us to develop all of these skills. They should all be present in a company or family. The book also asserts that people tend to have at least one of them as a natural strength. Therefore, we should discover which of the animals most accurately describes our strengths.
Personally, I identify with several of the animals, particularly the wildebeest, crocodile and the giraffe. However, I think the author’s description of the crocodile most nearly describes my strength. I am a crocodile!
Have you read this book? If so, what did you learn? What animal are you? If you haven’t read it, I recommend it to you. Let me know what you think.
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